April 1999

April 1-4, 1999

Interior complete and back from shop. The bottom is a stock Rand sling reinforced with seatbelt web and trimmed. The back is 1/2" foam over the standard 1/4" plywood. The baggage sling is simple naugahide which snaps around a heavy cross member at the back of the built up baggage compartment. Fortunately Naugahas are plentiful in these parts and you don't need a permit provided you hunt them with your car.

Construct battery box from .063" (bottom/bracket) and .040" (sides/top) aluminum. Bingelis' Sportplane Builder book has excellent instructions on how to build this item.

Cut side trim panels to fit from 1mm birch. These will be covered in cloth and trimmed to match seat and seat back.

April 5-6, 1999

Continue fabrication of battery box. Due to the location of the terminals on the motorcycle battery (sticking out the side) it is necessary to allow for liberally sized cut outs on each side. The positive side cut out was made larger and insulated to preclude the possibility of shorting.

April 7-12, 1999

Mount battery box to firewall using AN-3 bolts and nutplates. Due to the limited space available the entire box will have to be removed prior to being able to remove the battery. With good access to the bolt heads and nutplates behind this shouldn't be a difficult task. It will be possible to check electrolyte levels simply by removing the top.

Why can't Mr. Drill and Mr. Hand be friends?

Paint the box interior and exterior with Randolph 344 Acid Black. This stuff seems little different from asphalt type undercoating. However, considering a single quart cost $18.00, I hope I'm wrong.

Fabricate and mount an aluminum heat shield (from .040" sheet) for gascolator. Mount it to the firewall using 1/4" sheet metal screws.

Install gascolator.

April 13, 1999

Connect throttle. A 1/16" aluminum plate (mounted to firewall) was required to secure the cable sheath end.

April 14-15, 1999

Fabricate bracket to secure end of mixture control. Two 8-32 tapped holes were put into the body of the carb to secure the bracket.

April 18, 1999

Drill and tap gascolator bowl for quick drain (originally there was just a 1/4" plug).

Install fuel hose from gascolator to carb. Firesleeve will be added later to provide maximum protection from heat and vapour lock. The hose to the carb slopes away from the gascolator contrary to good practice, however the gascolator is located as low on the firewall as possible.

Install voltage regulator on firewall.

Install new oil cooler assembly and hoses. The old stuff looked OK but could have been original equipment making it 15+ years old. It's truly amazing how fast a gallon of oil can be dumped out of an engine from a bad hose. Being a single engine, a lot of the ejected oil would wind up on the windscreen. On the plus side, at 75' off the end of some runways in this situation, you may not want to see what's ahead.

Torque engine mount bolts to 3.5 foot/lbs (42 in/lbs) per specification. Secure with cotter pins.

Begin removal of cylinder heads for inspection and installation of "GPASC Super Cool Tin" baffles.

April 19, 1999

Remove spark plugs for cleaning/gapping.

Remove cylinder heads for installation of baffles. Inside cylinder walls are in good shape with almost no corrosion evident. Crosshatch pattern is still obvious on walls. Combustion chambers are clean and valve faces look nearly new. Once the baffles are fitted the heads can simply be re-installed.

April 20, 1999

Fit and install GPASC Super Cool Tin (lower) baffle. To hold in place I drilled a 5/32" hole in the approximate centre of the material sitting vertically between the cylinders. A piece of .090" music wire was formed with a loop on either end. One end of the loop goes through this hole the other hooks on to a cross bar (.090" wire also) which sits above the cylinders. This baffle is a very nice looking piece which should even out cooling on the bottom side of the cylinders quite effectively.

April 22, 1999

Complete installation of lower baffles. Clean cylinder heads in preparation for installation.

Complete electrical system schematic.

April 23, 1999

Install cylinder heads. Torque to 18 ft/lbs per spec.

April 25, 1999

Complete BOM for electrical system.

Locate and drill holes in firewall for electrical wiring. Cut one side off a standard grommet (MS35489) to install in the thicker (plywood) firewall. Fabricate aluminum shields per Bingelis to protect the grommets.